SyncTunes 1.6.0 review
DownloadSyncTunes is a small application that can copy tracks from an iTunes playlist and downloaded iTunes podcasts to a mounted volume (e.
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SyncTunes is a small application that can copy tracks from an iTunes playlist and downloaded iTunes podcasts to a mounted volume (e.g. such as a SD card in a card reader, or a PDA's expansion card using Missing Sync).
Why not just drag and drop from iTunes? This is a good method, but I wanted to have an easy way to auto select music tracks and to just get my podcasts. The plan was:
• Insert card into reader
• Launch SyncTunes
• Click button
• Have a shave
• Pull card out of reader
SyncTunes was developed using Xcode 2.1 with Mac OS X 10.4.2 (PPC only) and iTunes 4.9. It has only been tested in this environment, but reports say it is happily running on Mac OS X 10.3.
Here are some key features of "SyncTunes":
Playlists
Select any iTunes playlist
Default "SyncTunes" playlist will be auto-selected
Replace or merge with existing tracks
Auto-refresh smart playlists
Ignore playlist and sync only podcasts
Podcasts
Select all or only new podcasts
Replace or merge with existing podcasts
Option to delete copied podcasts from iTunes
Ignore podcasts and sync only playlist
Destination volume
Select top-level destination folder
Generates .m3u playlists for the playlist and podcasts
Select to transfer only MP3, or MP3 + AAC (non-DRM), or all files selected by the the playlist and podcasts
Eject volume after sync
Only permits ejectable volumes as the destination, so no chance of ejecting a built-in volume
Other features
Auto-launches iTunes if not already open
Option to quit iTunes with SyncTunes
Settings saved between SyncTunes launches.
What's New:
Added selectable minimum bitrate when re-encoding files that are the same format as the selected encoder: iTunes tracks with bitrates below the setting will not be re-encoded
Checks for file existance at the destination before any conversion happens
Added option to use ID3 name tag as the destination filename (+ extension)
Illegal/accented characters from track filename now removed when syncing tracks
Converted track names now same as original file, after illegal/accented characters removed
Added option to use a single folder for artist/albums instead of the normal folder/subfolder hierarchy
M3U playlists now list tracks in same order as the iTunes playlist
Now supports reverse order syncing of the playlist tracks.
If playlist subfolder is set to be the same as iTunes playlist name, M3U playlists no longer have the 'ST-[dest folder]-' prefix.
Simple Mode now supports the use of a named folder in the top-level as well as the destination volume's top-level.
Changed M3U behaviour: 3 M3U files are normally created, if all files are MP3 or AAC, previously, SyncTunes would retain the M3U with MP3/AAC suffix. Now the M3U with no suffix is retained and the MP3/AAC M3U are deleted. This helps when using iTunes playlist name.
MP3 and AAC Track filenames with no extension now have .mp3 and .m4a, respectively, added to the synced destination filename
Added #M3UTITLE in extended format M3U playlists. Uses the iTunes playlist as the M3U title or the 'artist - album'
Invisibles erased during sync - just incase SyncTunes is not used to eject the volume
Various 'under-the-hood' changes
Profiles need to be resaved with v1.6.0
Bug fix: Quicktime files, such as OGG, in iTunes v5 do not report a bit rate. When converting file format, the file will be converted.
Bug fix: When an error occurs copying a track, now deletes any partially copied file and tries again. If a second error occurs the partially copied file is deleted and the track is skipped
Bug fix: Loading profiles on Intel Macs no longer rejected as the wrong file format
Bug fix: Now syncs files when running on Intel Macs instead of skipping over each track.
Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3 or later (OS X 10.4 for Intel)
iTunes 5.0 (including iTunes 6).
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